of GOD and all Natural Laws Which Answer of the Duke of York and h s Claim to the Crown was by the same Parliament expresly recognized and declared to be Good True Just Lawful and Sufficient And when in the same year Edward Earl of March eldest Son to the said Duke of York upon the death of his Father took possession of the Crown by the Name of King Edward the IVth his Title was in full Parliament by all acknowledged in these Words Knowing also certainly and without doubt and ambiguity that by GODs Law and the Law of Nature He viz. the said King Edward and none other is and ought to be true R ghtwise and Natural Liege and Soveraign Lord And that he was in right from the Death of the said Noble and Fam us Prinee his Father very just King of the same Realm of England And so little Respect was given to the aforementioned Act of Entail that it was not so much as repealed being esteemed from the very beginning null and void in it self Nor indeed were any Acts of Henry the IVth Vth. or VIth stiled Kings in Deed and not of Right deemed to be in force but such as were expresly confirmed by Edward the IVth in the same manner as his Sacred Majesty now reigning confirmed the judicial Proceedings of the late Usurpation As little Success had that Monster of Nature Richard Duke of Glocester who being by the Interest of several factious Lords chosen Protector to his Nephew the young King Edward the Vth having by that means gotten into his hands the military Force of the Nation pretending that the Children of his Brother King Edward the IVth were illegitimate laid claim to the Crown which he not only entailed by Act of Parliament upon himself and his Issue but the better to secure it in his Line caused the Innocent young King and his only Brother the Duke of York to be barbarously murthered in the Tower yet did he within three years lose both his Crown and Life to Henry Earl of Richmond on whom and his Heirs it was again by Act of Parliament entailed which yet would little have availed him or his Posterity had he not prudently acording to his promise by which several of the Nobility were induced to assist him married Elizabeth eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth and immediate Heiress of the Crown whereby happily turning his Usurpation into a lawful Sovereignty he secured himself in the Throne But that his Issue by any other Lady could not have had better Success against the Princely House of York than Adonijah had against Salomon may more than probably be presumed if we shall consider what Fate attended the many mad Acts made by Henry the VIIIth about the Succession This haughty Prince whose capricious Humor none of his Parliaments durst gainsay having after above twenty years Cohabitation divorced his Queen a chast and vertuous Lady did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign disinherit by Act of Parliament the Lady Mary his Daughter by her settling the Crown by special Words for want of Issue Male on his Issue Female by the Lady Anne Bullen To the observation of which Act the whole Nation was obliged by an Oath imposed the year following the Refusal of which Oath was adjudged Misprision of Treason And yet in the twenty eighth year of his Reign he bastardized and made illegitimate to all intents and purposes as he had done formerly the Issue of Queen Katherine the Issue betwixt him and the Lady Anne Bullen barring them to claim challenge or demand any Inheritance as Lawful Heir or Heirs to him by Lineal Descent making it Treason for any one notwithstanding their former Oath by Words Writing Printing or any other exterior Act directly or indirectly to call any of the Children born under the unlawful Marriages of Katharine and Anne Bullen legitimate and enacting that in case he had no Issue by Jane his then Queen he might dispose of the Crown to whatsoever person or persons he pleased the whole Nation being bound to the observance of this Law by the Sanctimony of an Oath the refusal whereof was made High Treason After all this in the thirty fifth year of his Reign he by another Act entailed the Crown on himself Prince Edward and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth without repealing the former Acts or taking the least notice of their being so signally bastardized and for default of Heirs of their Bodies on such person or persons as he should nominate by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed by his most Gracious Hand the whole Nation being again sworn to observe his pleasure herein Consequently whereunto he by such his last Will and Testament solemnly bequeathed the Crown upon failure of his own Issue to the House of Suffolk being the Issue of his younger Sister Mary excluding by that means from the Throne as much as in him and his Act of Parliament lay the Issue of his Elder Sister whose Royal Blood he affirmed the cold Air of Scotland to have frozen up in the North. Yet when after the Death of his three Children reigning successively these disinheriting Statutes the last whereof was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth in whose thirteenth year there passed also an Act That it should be Treason during her Life and a Praemunire afterwards to assert that the Imperial Crown of England could not be disposed of by Act of Parliament came to the Test they had not the Honor to be repealed but were held null and void from the beginning as being notoriously repugnant to the Laws both of GOD and Nature and the common Customs and Constitutions of the Realm And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament notwithstanding all these unrepealed Acts having confest the Inestimable and unspeakable Blessings accrewing from the Vnion of England and Scotland under one Imperial Crown in the Person of King James lineally rightfully and lawfully descended of the most Excellent Lady Margaret Eldest Daughter of the most renowned King Henry the VIIth and the high and noble Princess Queen Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth proceeded to the Recognition of his Title in these Words We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of GOD and Man do recognize and acknowledge that immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness of GOD Almighty and lawful Right of Descent Your Majesty is under one Imperial Crown of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty
that as their Persons were sacred and Spiritual so it was no less a part of their Duty to take care of the external Regulation and peace of the Church than of the Civil Government of their States Yet were there antiently none anointed but the two Emperors of the East and West the Kings of France England Sicily and Hierusalem amongst whom the Monarch of Great Britain may lay as ancient a Claim to this Holy Unction as any other Prince of Europe the very first Kings of this Island after it was freed from the Jurisdiction of the Romans having been anointed By reason of which Unction it was in the Reign of Edward the IIId declared that the Kings of England were capable of Spiritual Jurisdiction Of this Sacred Person of the King of his Life and Safety so singular a Care is taken that the Laws of both the Realms whereinto this Island is divided do herein agree that it is High Treason only to imagin or intend the Death of the King And because likewise by imagining or conspiring the Death of the Kings Councellors or Great Officers of his Houshold the Death of the Sovereign may ensue and is usually aimed at all such Conspiracies tho never taking effect are punished with Death tho in all other Capital Cases no man is put to Death unless the Act follow the Intent Nay in so high an esteem is the Kings Person had that to offend against those Persons and Things whereby he is represented as to kill some of the Crown Officers or any of the Kings Judges executing their Office to counterfeit the Kings Seals or his Moneys is made High Treason because by all these his Sacred Person is represented And so horrid is this Crime of High Treason that besides the Loss of Life and Honour the Criminal forfeits all his Estate Real and Personal his Wife loses her Dower his Children their Nobility and all their Right of Inheritance to him or any other Ancestor and are to be ranked amongst the Peasantry and Ignoble till the King shall please to restore them For so heinous is this Offence that the Law can hardly endure to see the Posterity of the Offender survive him And rather than Treason against the Kings Person shall go unpunished the Innocent shall in some cases suffer for if an Ideot or Lunatick who having no Will cannot possibly be said to offend shall during his Ideocy or Lunacy kill or go about to kill the King he shall be punished as a Traytor tho not being Compos mentis he can neither commit Felony Petit Treason or any other sort of High Treason So tender a Regard is moreover had of this most precious Person of the King that no Physick ought to be administred to him but what his Physicians prepare with their own Hands and not by the Hands of any Apothecary nor are they to use the Assistance of any Chirurgeons but such as are sworn Chirurgeons to his Person This Person of the King in his Natural as well as Politick Capacity is every Subject to defend with his own Life and Limbs For the King being Father of his Country it should seem a pleasant thing to every Loyal-hearted Subject to lose Life or Limb in defending him from Conspiracies Rebellions or Invasions or assisting him in the Execution of his Laws The Office of the Monarch of Great Britain and indeed of every Christian Prince Office was by the Holy Roman Bishop St. Eleutherius described to our first Christian King Lucius Which Description recorded in the Laws of St. Edward the Confessor King of England is as followeth A King being the Minister and Delegate of the Supreme King is appointed by GOD for this end that He govern this Earthly Kingdom and People of our Lord and above all that he govern and venerate his Church defending it from all who would injure it That he root out of it and utterly destroy all Evil-Doers For the better enabling themselves to discharge this great and weighty Office to the just and upright Performance whereof every King at his Coronation obliges himself by solemn Oath Prerogatives the Monarchs of Great Britain have reserved as inherent in their Crown certain extraordinary Powers Preeminences and Priviledges commonly called Royal Prerogatives some of the most remarkable whereof in which as being necessary for the Preservation of the Government and the Safety and Interest of the People the Laws of both Kingdoms agree do here follow The King solely and alone has by his Royal Prerogative without any Act of Parliament the absolute Power of declaring War making Peace sending and receiving Ambassadours entring into and concluding Leagues and Treaties with any Forreign Prince or State He has the sole Disposing and Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land raising Forces Garrisoning and Fortifying Places setting out Ships of War and Pressing Men if need require He alone disposes of all Magazins Ammunition Castles Fortresses Ports and Havens and has the laying out and employing as he pleases of all Publick Monies or the Revenues of the Crown and Kingdom He appoints the Metal Weight Purity and Value of Money and may by his Proclamation make any Forreign Coin to be lawful and Current Money within his Dominions By his Royal Prerogative he may of his meer Will and Pleasure convoke adjourn prorogue remove and dissolve Parliaments and may to any Act passed by them give or refuse without rendring any Reason his Royal Assent without which a Bill is but a meer Cadaver a lifeless and inanimate Lump He may at his pleasure increase the number of the Members of Parliament by creating new Barons and bestowing Priviledges upon other Towns to send Burgesses to Parliament Yea he may call to Parliament by Writ any one whether Alien or Native whom he in his Princely Wisdom shall think fit and may refuse to send his Writ to some others that have sat in former Parliaments His Majesty alone hath the Choice and Nomination of all Magistrates Councellors and Officers of State of all Bishops and other high Dignities in the Church of all Commanders and other Officers at Sea and Land the bestowing of all Honors of the higher and lower Nobility the Power of determining Rewards for Services and Punishments for Misdemeanors He may by his Letters Patents erect new Counties Bishopricks Universities Cities Burroughs Hospitals Schools Fairs Markets Courts of Justice Forrests Chases and Free-Warrens He hath by his Prerogative Power to enfranchise an Alien and thereby to enable him to purchase Houses and Lands and to bear some Offices He hath Power to grant Letters of Mart or Reprisal Safe Conducts c. No Proclamation can be made but by the King Between which and a Statute as the Difference originally was not great the King making the latter by the Common Councel of the Kingdom whereas in the former he had but the Advice of his great Councel of the Peers or of his Privy Councel only So what Judgment Parliaments have formerly
King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and our Posterities for ever And some years after it was by all the Judges of England expresly resolved in Calvins Case That King James his Title to the Crown was founded upon the Laws of Nature viz. by inherent Birth-right and Descent from the Blood-Royal of this Realm All Acts of Parliament then for excluding from the throne the next Heir of the Blood Royal on whom the Crown descends by the Laws of God and Nature by inherent Birthright and undoubted Succession being ipso facto null and void it is not to be wondred that his present Sacred Majesty so constantly declared that he would never consent to alter the Descent of the Crown in the right Line as not being willing by shewing his People a Method of disposing the Succession to shake at the same time the Title of his own Possession Since it is evident that the Heir apparent or next of Blood hath the same Right to enjoy the Crown after his Predecessors Death as the Actual Possessor hath to it during his Life and consequently that the People have no more Right to disinherit the one than to depose the other Nor can any man be blamed for apprehending that some such thing might be aimed at by the first Projectors of the Bill for excluding his Royal Highness from the Succession if it shall be considered that the chief Sticklers for that Bill insisted on the Deposition of Edward the IId contrived by a leacherous Queen and disloyal Parliament and that of Richard the IId who was for pretended Misgovernment removed from the Throne by a Parliament over-awed by an Army of fourty or fifty thousand men and Henry the IVth substituted in his stead that during the Heat of these debates the Answer to the Great and Weighty Considerations wherein besides many other treasonable Passages the Author has these express words I hope there are very few in this Nation that do not think it in the Power of the People to depose a Prince who really undertakes to alienate his Kingdom or give it up into the hands of another Soveraign Power or really acts the Destruction or general Calamity of his People was publickly sold before the very Doors of Parliament and that the same House of Commons which was with so much eagerness hurried on to the passing of that Bill was also prevailed upon to importune his Majesty in behalf of the publisher of that pernicious Appeal from the Country to the City which by affirming that No Government but Monarchy can in England ever support or favor Popery endeavors not only to destroy the King but even Kingship it self But well fare the noble Lords of England who with a Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari rejected that abominable Bill which tho it would if passed into an Act have been of no greater Force or Validity than the Wild Ordinances of the Rebellious Parliament of 1640. yet might it as they were be made use of to induce the deluded Multitude to hazard their Souls Bodies and Estates by a damnable Opposition of their Lawful Soveraign and to raise up a Contest in this Nation not unlike to the old Yorkish and Lancastrian Quarrel the Thoughts whereof every good man must certainly dread when he shall seriously consider how that War lasted about sixty years and cost the Kingdom its whole Treasure and the Lives of above two hundred thousand of the Commons besides several Kings and Princes and Nobles without number So sensible was the renowned Queen Elizabeth of those fatal Consequences which necessarily attend so unjust an Act as that of altering the Succession that altho for Reasons obvious enough and needless here to be mentioned she yeilded to pass an Act whereby it was made Treason to say that she and her Parliament could not dispose of the Crown yet could she never be brought to give her Consent to the actual disposing thereof tho the next Heir then alive was not only a Papist but her own Rival to the Throne Nay she was so averse to any such Act that as Camden tells us She never heard any thing more unwillingly than that the Title of Succession should be called into question And therefore she sent Mr. Thornton Reader of Law in Lincolns-Inn to the Tower because in his Reading he called in question the Queen of Scots Title to the Crown And when the Lord Keeper Bacon was accused by the Earl of Leicester for having intermedled against the Queen of Scots Right to the Succession and for being privy to a Book wherein Hales went about to derive the Title of the Crown of England in case the Queen should die without Issue to the House of Suffolk Hales was therefore committed to the Tower and Bacon tho denying it was not without great difficulty restored to favor So likewise when in the eighth year of her Reign Bell Mounson and a great Number of the House of Commons thought it their Right as Representatives of the whole Kingdom whereof they do not in reality represent the sixth part to decide settle the Succession the Queen by a Prince-like Speech in the Parliament-House speedily suppressed their Insolence In like manner when in the thirty fifth year of her Reign Mr. Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a Petition to the Lord Keeper desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be Suppliants with them of the Lower to Her Majesty for entailing the Succession of the Crown for which they had a Bill ready drawn the Queen highly displeased hereat charged her Councel to call the Parties before them Whereupon Sir Thomas Henage sending for them commanded them to forbear the Parliament and not to go out of their several Lodgings They were after called before the Lord Treasurer Lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Henage by whom Wentworth was committed to the Tower Sir Henry Bromley and other Members of the House of Commons to whom he had imparted the matter being sent to the Fleet. So careful was this prudent Queen to keep the People from presuming to intermeddle with the Succession The same Consideration that the Altering or Diverting the Succession in an hereditary Monarchy where the Kings deriving their Royal Power from GOD Almighty alone do succeed lineally to the Crown according to the known Degrees of Proximity in Blood cannot be attempted without involving the Subjects in Perjury and Rebellion and exposing of them to all the Fatal and Dreadful Consequences of a Civil War not only caused the Estates of Scotland in their very last Sessions of Parliament from an hearty and sincere Sence of their Duty to recognize acknowledge and declare That the Right to the Imperial Crown of that Realm is by the Inherent Right and the Nature of the Monarchy as well as by the Fundamental and unalterable Laws of the Realm transmitted and devolved by a Lineal Succession according to the Proximity of Blood And that upon the Death of the
from my Lord Mordant of the disappointment of much of the design he went to Bulloign and thence to Reuen whither Dr. Allestry bringing him News of Sir Georges being in Arms he went thence by Caen to St. Maloes where being in preparation of a Vessel to transport him into England he received the fatal Tidings of Booths Defeat Thence his Majesty went to Fontarabia to be present at the Treaty of Peace managed upon the Borders between France and Spain by the two chief Ministers of those two Kings where he was with all imaginable respect entertained by Don Lewis de Haro Plenipotentiary for his Catholick Majesty from whom he received large Promises of Assistance both with men and money and a Present of twenty thousand Crowns for defraying the Expences of his Journey There receiving Advice from the Lord Mordant of the Disorders in England he returned through France toward Bruxels staying by the way some few dayes with his Royal Mother at Paris Restauration In the year 1660. Perceiving a general Inclination in his Subjects to receive him he providently upon Advice sent him by General Monk the late Duke of Albemarl removed from Bruxels to Breda within the Dominions of the Vnited Netherlands whence he sent Letters bearing date the fourteenth of April to the Lords to the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Generals Monk and Mountague and to the City of London together with a gracious Declaration for the composing and quieting the minds of his Subjects These were on the first of May read in Parliament and on the eighth he was with great Solemnity proclaimed in the Cities of London and Westminster The Tenor of the Proclamation agreed upon by the Lords and Commons clearly expressing the Hereditariness of this Monarchy and consequently the unalterableness of the Succession is as followeth Altho it can no way be doubted but that His Majesties Right and Title to his Crown and Kingdoms is and was every way compleated by the Death of his most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such cases have alwayes been used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the armed Violence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived Vs of any such Opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to Our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim That upon the Decease of Our late Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Royal Blood of this Realm and that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty GOD He is of England Scotland France and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Vndoubted King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige Our Selves our Heirs and Posterities May the twenty third his Majesty after a magnificent entertainment at the Hague by the States of Holland and an humble Invitation of English Commissioners sent by the Lords and Commons then assembled at Westminster embarkt at Scheveling and with a gallant Fleet and gentle Gale of Wind landed at Dover on the twenty fifth and on the twenty ninth being his Birth day his Majesty then just thirty years of Age entred into London accompanied with his two Brothers attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of the three Kingdoms and received with the most Universal Joy Acclamations and Magnificence that could possibly be exprest This wonderful Restauration of his Majesty after so many years Dispossession his irreconcileable Enemies who were fully possest of the Government being supported by an Army of thirty thousand experienced and victorious Souldiers in Eng and all fostered up in an Aversion to Monarchy besides the trained Militia of the Nation amounting to a far greater number and wholly consisting of chosen men of the like Principles attempted and effected without Blood Blows Bargain or Obligation to any forreign Prince or Potentate by the Generosity and Prudence of that Noble Captain George late Duke of Albemarl whose Courage and Conduct this present Age cannot but admire and our Posterity will with difficulty believe was so signal a Dispensation of Divine Providence which not only raised up that Noble Instrumont but darted likewise on a sudden into the Hearts of the People a Desire of their Soveraign which like Lightning running over his Kingdoms made them burn with eagerness for his return that the Great Turk hearing thereof openly declared that if he were to change his Religion he would adore and worship the GOD of the King of Great Brtain Coronation On the two and twentieth of April 1661. His Majesty according to the ancient Custom of his Royal Predecessors made a glorious and splendid Cavalcade from the Tower to Westminster where the next day being the Festival of St. Geopge he was Crowned with great Ceremony by Dr. William Juxon then Archbishop of Canterbury to whom that Office belonged in right of his See the Coronation-Sermon being preached by Dr. George Morley then Bishop of Worcester now of Winchester On the eighth of May following began a Parliament at Westminster as remarkable for their Loyalty and Zealous Affection to the Service of their Soveraign as that of 1640. is notorious for Disloyalty and Sedition In this Parliament were condemned as illegal and destructive to the Government all those Factious and Antimonarchical Doctrins first broached by the Rebels of the late times to justify their audacious Impieties and now again revived no doubt for the same purpose by the scurrilous Pamphletiers of this our Age who by their more than Jesuitical Equivocations eluding the plain and express Words of an Oath purposely framed to countermine and prevent such seditious Opinions and Practices which as they formerly have so may again be made use of to involve us in Confusion and Misery endeavor as much as in them lies to render all Profession and Promises of Allegiance and Fidelity made by Subjects to their Prince invalid and of none effect Marryage On the twenty eighth of the same Month His Majesty declared to his Parliament his Intention to marry the Infanta of Portugal who accordingly in May 1662. being landed at Portsmouth was there espoused unto him by Dr. Gilbert Sheldon then Bishop of London lately Archbishop of Canterbury CHAP. XIV Of the Present Queen of Great Britain Her Name Genealogy Birth Marriage Portion Jointure and Arms. THE present Queen of Great Britain is Donna CATHARINA Infanta
knew no Shore on the North with the Deucalidon Seas and on the South with the English Chanel parting it from France It is in form triangular but by some said to have the Resemblance of a great Snake the Head whereof with a wide-gaping Mouth looks toward Norway and part of Denmark his Tail extending to the West It is said to have been divided by Brutus into Loegria Division now called England Cambria Wales and Albania Scotland But it was found by Julius Caesar divided into several petty Provinces or Kingdomes the Names whereof follow 1. Cantii or the Inhabitants of Kent 2. Regni Sussex and Surrey 3. Durothriges Dorsetshire 4. Damnonii Devon and Cornwall 5. Belgae Somerset Wilts and Hampshire 6. Attrebatii Berkshire 7. Dobuni Oxford and Glocestershire 8. Catieuchlani Warwick Bucks and Bedfordshire 9. Trinobantes Hartford Essex and Middlesex 10. Iceni Suffolk Norfolk and Cambridgshire 11. Coritani Northampton Lincoln Leicester Rutland Derby and Nottinghamshire 12. Cornabii Stafford Worcester Cheshire and Shropshire 13. Brigantes Parisii Lancashire York Richmond Durham Westmorland and Cumberland 14. Ordovices Flint Denbigh Merioneth Caernarvan and Montgomeryshire 15. Silures Hereford Radnor Brecknock Monmouth and Glamorganshire 16. Dimetae Pembroke Cardigan and Caermardenshire 17. Ottadini Northumberland Teifidale Twedale Merch and Louthien 18. Selgovai Lidesdale Eusdale Eskdale Annandale and Niddesdale 19. Novantes Kile Carick Galloway and Cunningham 20. Damnii Fife Renfraw Cluydsdale Lennox Striveling and Menteth 21. Caledonii Gadini Perth Strathern Albin Argile and Lorne 22. Epidii Cantire 23. Vicemagi Murray 24. Venricones Mernia Anguis Mar. 25. Tazali Buquhane 26. Cantae Creones Cerontes Rosse Southerland 27. Carnonacae Carini Carnabii Stratnavern 28. Simertae Logi Caithnes After Britain was conquered by the Romans it was by them divided into Britannia Prima Britannia Secunda and Maxima Caesariensis The first of these containing the South parts the second all that Western part now called Wales and the third the Northern parts beyond Trent It was afterward divided into Britannia Major now called England and Minor which is Scotland The Britains having received the Christian Faith did for the better Government Ecclesiastical divide the same into three Provinces or Archbishopricks viz. the Archbishoprick of London containing Britannia Prima the Archbishoprick of York comprehending Maxima Caesariensis and the Archbishoprick of Caerleon upon Vsk under which was Britannia Secunda The Heathen Saxons afterward over-running the South part of this Island and dividing it into seven Kingdoms the King of Kent being first converted to the Christian Faith by St. Austin the Archiepiscopal See of London was removed to Canterbury that of Caerleon was translated to St. Davids in Pembrokeshire and at last subjected to the See of Canterbury the Archbishoprick of York under which was the North of England and all Scotland keeping still its first place The Britains being by the prevailing Saxons forced to retire into the Western parts beyond the River Severn that part of the Island was by the said Saxons called Walishland since Wales the Southern part by them inhabited named England and the Northern part Scotland and the Name of Britain seemed in a manner lost till such time as the Crown of England by indubitable Hereditary Right descending on the Royal House of Scotland King James of happy memory Grandfather to our present Dread Soveraign reuniting the Kingdoms restored also the ancient Name of Britain adding thereto the Epithet Great the better to distinguish it from Britannia Armorica a Province in the Realm of France The Air Ayr. tho different according to the many Climates through which it runs is generally milde and temperate the continual Breezes and gentle Winds from the Sea the very often Interposition of Clouds between the Sun and Earth and the frequent Showers of Rain qualifying the Heats and Droughts in Summer and the warm Vapors of the invironing Seas mitigating the Cold in Winter whose Frosts serve only to meliorate the cultivated Soil and its Snow to keep warm the tender Plants And tho in the most Northern parts of Scotland the Cold is much sharper in Winter than in any other place of the Island yet the great Plenty of Wood and other Fewel hinders the Inhabitants from suffering much thereby In a word the Cold is neither so piercing nor the Heat so scorching as that there should be need of Stoves in Winter or Grottaes in Summer Soyl. As the Ayr is kind and temperate so the Soyl is fertil and wholsom abundantly watered with Springs and Streams and in many places with great Navigable Rivers the most eminent whereof are the Thames Severn and Humber There are especially in the South part thereof called England few barren Hills or craggy Rocks and tho the Northern parts of Scotland are somewhat mountainous yet there want not even there fruitful Valleys apt for Grain Grass or Wood. Nay that very Ground which lies wast and neglected in England is by men of no small Judgment thought far to exceed the Soyl of many Provinces on the Continent The excellency of the Soyl is manifested by the Complexion of the Inhabitants who therein exceed all other Nations of the Universe It is attested also by those transcendent Elogies given her by Antient and Modern Writers O happy Britain said an antient Panegyrist in the time of Constantine the Great and blessed above all other Regions Nature hath enriched thee with all the Benefits both of Heaven and Earth wherein there is neither extreme Cold in Winter nor scorching Heat in Summer wherein there is such abundant Plenty of Corn as may suffice both for Bread and Wine wherein are Woods without Wild Beasts and Fields without noysom Serpents but infinite numbers of Milch-Cattle and Sheep weighed down with rich Fleeces And that which is most comfortable long Dayes and lightsome Nights And long before that it was called by Orpheus The Seat of Queen Ceres as since by Charles the Great The Storehouse and Granary of the whole Western World So that not undeservedly does our English Lucan sing The fairest Land that from her thrusts the rest As if she car'd not for the World beside A World within her self with wonders blest Commodities As this our Island is separated from the rest of the habitable World so Nature like an indulgent Mother has furnished it with so great abundance of all things necessary for the life of Man that it may easily subsist without the Contribution of any other part of the World Insula praedives quae toto vix eget orbe Et cujus totus indiget orbis ope Insula praedives cujus miretur optet Delicias Salomon Octavianus opes said old Alfred of Beverly speaking of Britain And should I here go about to enumerate the several sorts of Grain it bears its vast abundance of Cattel yielding wholsom and substantial Food its great Plenty and Variety of Fish Fowl Fruit edible Roots and Herbs I might be thought by Strangers rather to reckon up the Works
of Nature than to describe the Plenty of an Island It hath indeed such a constant continuance of all sorts of necessary Food that the Famin which so often ravages other Countreys has scarce been felt here these four hundred years The usual and natural drink of the People is Beer Ale Syder Perry and in some places Metheglin or Mede As this Island affords its Inhabitants all necessary Food for the support of their Life so it yields them plenty of Rayment for their defence against the Injuries of the Weather For it produceth especially in the South part called England not only very fine Wooll making excellently lasting and well-conditioned Cloth but also such great abundance thereof as serves not only for the Cloathing of all sorts of People from the highest to the lowest but being manufactured into Cloth and Stuffs is dispersed all over the World but especially into High-Germany Muscovia Turky and Persia to the great benefit of its Inhabitants And as it thus abounds with Wool so hath it Linen made therein inferiour to none for its Goodness nor would it need supply thereof from elsewhere for any use whatever were the people but so industrious as they might be in sowing Flax and Hemp for the producing whereof they want not fitting Ground tho there be at present through their Sloth in neglecting to improve it much Linen imported to the shame and damage of the Nation The Abundance of Cattel here slain furnishes the People with great store of excellent Leather for all sorts of Uses insomuch that the poorest of them were good Leathern Shooes whereas in the neighboring Countries they either wear Wooden Shooes or none at all For building it wants not any requisite Materials being well stored with Timber Iron Brick Tiles Slate Lime Lead Glass and Stone of which our fine Portland Stone is not much inferior to Marble For fewel there is either Wood Sea-Coal or Pit-Coal almost everywhere to be had at reasonable rates and where this is wanting they burn Turfs or Peats For Shipping there is no where better Oak no where such Knee-timber as the Shipwrights call it or Iron to make serviceable Guns For War Journeys and Hunting for Plow Cart and Carriages there is such abundant plenty of Horses that Asses and Mules so frequently made use of in France Italy and Spain are here utterly despised Dogs it hath of all sorts sizes and uses amongst which the English Mastiff deservedly has the first Place from all others in the World a Dog bold and stout as a Lyon and yet when well bred gentle and manageable as a Lamb and therefore of singular use for the Defence of Families against the Attempts of Thieves and House-breakers It produceth likewise besides a mighty quantity of Tynn Lead and Iron some Brass and Copper and hath also Quicksilver Antimony Sulphur Black-Lead Orpiment red and yellow Allom Salt Hops Saffron Liquoris and divers other beneficial Commodities and has several Silver-Mines richer than those of Potosi in the West-Indies whence the King of Spain has most of his Silver those yielding usually but an Ounce and an half of Silver in an hundred Ounces of Oar and these ordinarily six or eight Ounces per Cent. But these Mines lying deep are hard to come unto which in Potosi is otherwise And as if all this were not sufficient it yieldeth Physick likewise to the Inhabitants having in it Hot Baths for the ease of Maims Bruises inward Aches and Paines and abounding in Medicinal Springs And altho there be not much Wine made here at present yet if we shall consider that Vineyards were heretofore common in most of the Southern and middle parts of England we shall easily be induced to attribute this Defect if it be any to the better improvement of our Ground and the cheap and easy Importation of that and other forreign Commodities the Advantages it hath from all parts of the World to take in Trade and Merchandize being so great as abundantly verifies that of the Old Poet Quicquid amat Luxus quicquid desiderat Vsus Ex te proveniet vel aliunde tibi In a word tho this Island is by some Countries in some things excelled yet if we consider the Salubrity of the Air free in a manner from violent Thunder and Lightning unwholsom Serenes and tempestuous Hurricanes and well-stored with Birds and Fowls the Fertility of the Soil rarely subjected to Droughts Inundations or destructive Earthquakes the Fields being laden with Corn the Pastures stockt with Cattel the Forrests Parks of which in England alone there are more than in all Europe besides Warrens and Woods stored with wild Beasts only for Recreation and Food the Amoenity and Utility of its Seas Rivers and Ponds covered with Ships and Boats and abounding with all sorts of Fish its Plenty of Metals and Minerals the strength of its Situation being so walled and guarded with the Ocean so well furnished with excellent Shipping and Sailors and so abounding with commodious Ports and Havens that it is rightly termed The Lady of the Sea we may well be permitted to affirm that for necessary Food and Raiment for pleasant and wholsom Living for Safety and Security it is hardly to be equalled by any Kingdom in the World and needs not fear the Force of any Neighboring Nation but that which over-powering us at Sea shall thereby deprive us of our strongest Bulwark and of an Island make us a Continent Not without reason therefore did an Antient Writer thus cry out Britain Thou art a glorious Isle extolled and renowned among all Nations the Navies of Tharsis cannot be compared with thy Shipping bringing in all precious Commodities of the World The Sea is thy Wall and strong Fortifications do secure thy Ports Chivalry Clergy and Merchandize do flourish in thee The Pisans Genoveses and Venetians do bring thee Saphires and Carbuncles from the East Asia serveth thee with Silk and Purple Africa with Cinamon and Balm Spain with Gold and Germany with Silver Thy Weaver Flanders doth drape Cloth for thee of thine own Wool Cascoign then under the Crown of England Thy Gascoign doth send thee Wine Buck and Doe are plentiful in thy Forests Droves of Cattle and Flocks of Sheep are upon thy Hills All the Perfection of the goodliest Land is in thee Thou hast all the Fowl of the Air. In plenty of Fish thou dost surpass all Regions And albeit thou art not stretched out with large Limits yet bordering Nations cloathed with thy Fleeces do wonder at thee for thy blessed Plenty Thy Swords have been turned into Plow-shares Peace and Religion flourisheth in thee so that thou art a Mirror to all Christian Kingdoms CHAP. III. Of the Inhabitants Of the Laws Religion Manners and Punishments of the Antient Britains Of their Language Stature Diet Attire Recreation Traffick Shipping Coins and Buildings Of their Arms and manner of Fighting Of their Computation of Time BRITAIN being a Country Inhabitants so rich in Commodities so beautiful
at Cork in Ireland Anno 1381. EDMVND MORTIMER Earl of March had Issue Roger Mortimer Earl of March and Vlster Lord of Wigmor Trym Clare and Connaght who married Elianor Eldest Daughter and one of the Heirs of Thomas Holland Earl of Kent 1. Roger Mortimer died without Issue 2. Edmund Mortimer died without Issue 3. Anne Mortimer married to Richard Plantagenet Earl of Cambridge by whom she had Issue Richard Plantagenet Duke of York Earl of Cambridge March and Vlster Edward the IVth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland 1. Edward the Vth. King of England and France and Lord of Ireland murthered in the Tower left no Issue 2. Richard Plantagenet Duke of York murthered with his Brother King Edward left no Issue 3. Elizabeth eldest Daughter to Edward the IVth married to Henry the VIIth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland ELIZABETH eldest Daughter to King Edward the IVth by her Husband King Henry the VIIth had Issue 1. Arthur Prince of VVales died before his Father and left no Issue 2 Henry the VIIIth King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith 1. Edward the VIth King of England France and Ireladd died without Issue 2. Mary Q. of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Elizabeth Queen of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Margaret eldest Daughter to Henry the VIIth married to James the IVth King of Scotland by whom she had Issue James the Vth. King of Scotland Mary Queen of Scotland who was by her Subjects infected with Calvinism of which it is truly observed that it never entred into any Country but by Rebellion expelled her Kingdom and forced to fly for shelter into England where so implacable is Presbyterian Malice they never left persecuting her till they had brought her after eighteen years Imprisonment to end her dayes upon a Scaffold By her Husband Henry Lord Darnley Son to Mathew Stuart Earl of Lenox she had Issue James the VIth King of Scotland who after the Decease of Elizabeth Queen of England as next Heir enjoyed the Crown of this Realm whereof he was no sooner possest but he reassumed the Title of Great Britain 1. Henry Prince of Wales died before his Father and left no Issue 2. CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith a Prince of incomparable Vertues and Endowments who was on the 30th of January 1648. barbarously and inhumanly murthered before the Gates of his own Royal Palace by a traitorous Crew of villanous Phanaticks so secure in their own Thoughts of having thereby extirpated Monarchy out of this Island that they insolently set up on the Royal Exchange in the place where his Statue which they maliciously decollated had been erected amongst those of his Predecessors this Inscription Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus 1. CHARLES the IId by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith now reigning Whō GOD long preserve 2. The Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and Albany 3. Mary Mother to the present Prince of Orange 4. Henrietta Mother to the present Queen of Spain 3. Elizaheth married to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine by whom she had a numerous Issue CHAP. X. Of the present Government of Great Britain in general OF Monarchies some are Hereditary the Crown descending either only to the Heirs Male as has long been practiced in France or to the next of Blood without Distinction of Sex as in Great Britain and Spain Others are Elective where upon the Death of every Prince another is chosen to succeed without any respect to the Heirs of the Predecessor as is used in Poland Of Hereditary Monarchies some are dependent holden of earthly Potentates to whom the Princes are obliged to do Homage for the same as is the Kingdom of Naples holden at this day of the Pope by the King of Spain Others are independent whose Princes acknowledge no Superior upon Earth but hold only of GOD and by their Sword Of this latter sort is the Empire of Great Britain being an Hereditary Monarchy consisting of two Provinces or Kingdoms governed by one Supreme Absolute Independent Undeposable and Unaccountable Head according to the known Laws and Customs of each Kingdom It is a Free Monarchy challenging above many other Europaean Kingdoms an Exemption from all Subjection to the Emperor or Laws of the Empi to which as the Northern Part of the Island or Kingdom of Scotland was never subject so the Southern part since called the Kingdom of England being abandoned by the Romans who had by force obtained the Dominion thereof the Right of Government by all manner of Laws reverted to the ancient Inhabitants to the last of whose Kings viz. Cadwalladar our present Sovereign is as appears by the precedent Genealogy by Lineal and Legitimate Descent the true and unquestionable Heir And as it is exempt from all forreign Jurisdiction and Dominion so likewise is it free from all Interregnum and many other Domestick Mischiefs whereunto Elective Kingdoms are ordinarily subject It is a Monarchy wherein the Grace and Bounty of its Princes rendring the subordinate Concurrence of the three Estates necessary to the making and repealing of all Statutes or Acts of Parliament in either Realm have afforded so much to the Industry Liberty and Happiness of the Subject and made the Yoak of Government so easy and its Burden so light that were it not for those malevolent and Fanatical Spirits which by sowing Jealousies amongst the People and raising Animosities in their Minds against their Prince endeavor to deprive us of the benefit of our Parliaments by rendring their Meetings unpracticable our Condition might well be envied by all other Nations of the Universe CHAP. XI Of the Monarch of Great Britain and therein of his Name Title Arms Dominions and Strength Of his Person Office Prerogative Soveraignty Divinity and Respect TO the Monarch of Great Britain is given in English which is the Language most generally spoken through his whole Dominions the Name King which hath its Original from the Saxon Word Koning and intimateth that Power and Knowledge wherewith every Soveraign should especially be invested The Modern Title used by the Monarch in all Treaties with forreign Princes and in all publick Affairs relating to his whole Dominions and stamped upon his Coin is By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith but in all Writs and other publick Instruments referring to the particular Concerns of either Kingdom of England or Scotland the two Kingdoms are distinctly named that Kingdom having the Precedency in such Instrument which is therein particularly concerned To the King alone belongs Dei Gratiâ taken simply and in the strictest sense as holding his Regal Dignity by the Favour of none but GOD the Archbishops and Bishops to whom that Title is also sometimes given must understand Dei Gratiâ Regis For tho their Character and
for the Safety and Well-Government of his Subjects the abandoning tho for so short a time the Protection and Defence of the People committed to his Charge Whatever things are proper unto Supreme Majesty Scepters and Crowns Soveraignty the Purple Robe the Globe or Golden Ball and Holy Unction have as long appertained to the British Monarch as to any other Prince in Europe The Antiquity of anointing Kings in Britain has been already shewn out of Gildas and as for the other four they are by Leland a famous Antiquary ascribed unto King Arthur who began his Reign in the Year of our Lord 506. Which was as soon as they were ordinarily in use with the Roman Emperors The King of Great Britain is an absolute and unaccountable Monarch a Free Prince of Soveraign Power not holding his Kingdom in Vassallage nor receiving his Instalment or Investiture from another Nor does he acknowledge Superiority to any but to GOD alone He is not only the Supreme but sole Legislator within his Dominions The Power of making Laws whatever some Antimonarchists pretend to the contrary rests solely in him And altho the Gracious Condescension of our Kings has been such as to render the subordinate Concurrence of the Estates of each Realm a Condition requisite to the making of new or abrogating of old Laws within the respective Kingdoms yet are they not thereby admitted to any Share in the Soveraignty their Power being wholly derivative from the King who is Caput Principium Finis Parliamentorum the three Estates when assembled in Parliament being as much his Subjects as every particular Man of them is when the Meeting is dissolved All Bills passed by them are but so much dead matter till quickned by his Royal Fiat which alone gives Life and Form to all their Proceedings Nor is it ex debito Justitiae but of his Special Grace that he passes such Acts as are presented to him Thus Henry the IIId begins his Magna Charta with Know ye that WE of our meer and free Will have given these Liberties Thus we hear King Edward the Ist saying The King of his special Grace for Redress of the Grievances of His People sustained by his Wars and for the Amendment of their Estate and to the intent that they may be the more ready to do him Service the more willing to assist and aid him in time of need Grants 28. E. 1. c. 1. And altho of later times Laws are said to be made by Authority of Parliament yet if we look into our antient Statutes we shall find the meaning to be that The King Ordains the Lords advise and the Commons consent Those then are much mistaken who affirm the Parliament to be at the least as Essential a Part of the Government as the Prince Which if it were true whenever the Parliament is dissolved the Government would be so too But this with the Pernicious Maxim of Coordinacy or sharing the Soveraign Power between King Lords and Commons with other treasonable and Antimonarchical Doctrines daily dispersed amongst the People and with the utmost of his Art industriously asserted by the Author of a late seditious Book entituled Plato Redivivus together with his audacious Proposals aiming to take all the Flowers out of the Imperial Diadem of the British Monarch are most fitly to be answered in Westminster-Hall as tending no less to the subversion of our Government which being purely Monarchical may be without the two Houses whereas they cannot be without the King than those traitorous Designs for which Coleman and his Accomplices paid their forfeited Lives to the Justice of the Laws The King of Great Britain is Lord Paramount supreme Landlord of all the Lands within his Dominions all landed men being mediately or immediately his Tenants by some Tenure or other By the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings saith Sir Edward Cook in the first part of his Institutes and especially of King Alfred it appeareth that the first Kings of this Realm had all the Lands of England in Demesne and the great Manors and Royalties they reserved to themselves and of the Remnant they for the Defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such Jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath The King as it is evident by the Rolls of the Chancellery in Scotland which contain their eldest and fundamental Laws is Dominus omnium bonorum and Dominus directus totius Dominii the whole Subjects being but his Vassals and from him holding all their Lands as their Over-lord Thus none but the King hath Allodium and Directum Dominium the sole and independent Property in any Land Upon this Ground no doubt it was that Serjeant Heal in the three and fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth said in Parliament He marvelled the House stood either at the granting of a Subsidy or time of Payment when all we have is her Majesties and She may lawfully at her pleasure take it from us and that She had as much Right to all our Lands and Goods as to any Revenue of the Crown And he said he could prove it by Precedents in the time of Henry the IIId King John and King Stephen And upon the same Ground was it resolved by the Judges in the beginning of the Reign of King James when there was a purpose to have taken away Tenures by Act of Parliament That such a Statute had been void because the Tenures were for the Defence of the King and Kingdom And altho since that the Tenures which gave a Dependency upon the Crown and were the greatest Safety to the King and People have been taken away and thereby a great Blow given to Monarchy yet let those who have the Fee the Jus perpetuum and the Vtile Dominium have a care lest by following the mischievous Advice of Plato Redivivus and abusing the Grace and Bounty of the Prince by endeavoring to draw the Soveraignty to themselves they necessitate not their King for the Preservation of himself and People to have Recourse to his Prerogative which is a Preheminence in Cases of Necessity above and before the Law of Property or Inheritance For the Prevention whereof it is to be wished that either by an Act of Resumption of the ancient Demesns of the Crown which was a sacred Patrimony and by Law unalienable or by such other way as the Wisdom of the Nation shall think fit a Royal Support adaequate to the Charges of the Crown be made for the King to defend his Kingdom and protect his People so that he may not be reduced to the Infelicity of having a precarious Revenue out of the Peoples Purse and to be beholden to a Parliament for his Bread in time of Peace which is no good Condition for a Monarchy As the Legislative Power is solely in the King so he alone has the Soveraign Power in the Administration of Justice and Execution of the Law He is the Fountain of all Justice which by his Judges and